Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Shibir Independence Day rally fired upon by Police in Dhaka

At least 21 activists
were bullet ridden in clashes following police obstruction of a peaceful rally of Chatra Shibir on Wednesday morning at Moghbazaar
in Dhaka.

The bullet ridden activists were
reported to be all Shibir activists. This was claimed by multiple sources from
Shibir itself.

According to various sources, Shibir
activists and leaders brought out a procession at Moghbazaar as part of their
daylong activities on 26th March, the Independence Day of Bangladesh.
The plan was to conclude the peaceful procession at Hatirjheel.

However, at a certain point police
obstructed the procession and started firing upon the peaceful activists. News
agencies report the use of tearshells, rubber bullets and empty bullets. In the
mayhem that followed, 21 activists were bullet ridden. Various news media have
also reported that at least 5-7 activists have been arrested by the police.
Many have been reported injured, with some media claiming up to a 100 activists
injured

On this issue, banglanews reports Ramna
thana OC Shah Alam as saying that Shibir took out a ‘flash’ procession in the
city. At this time police obstructed the rally, after which Shibir activists
took on police by throwing bricks and stones at the law enforcers. In response police
used empty shells, rubber bullets and tear shells to disperse the activists. However,
the official could not say whether this led to any injuries among the
protesters. However, he added that police had arrested 7 people from the procession.